Supervisors told county cemetery has an erosion problem

Oct 02, 2013

By MEGAN COOPER

Mt. Pleasant News

Pleasant Hill Cemetery is facing slide potential caused by seeding that did not take.

“A couple of years ago ditching was done at 260th and Logan Avenue and the seeding didn’t take well. The cemetery could have sliding and some of the markers are close to the right-of-way,” said Jake Hotchkiss, Henry County engineer, during the Henry County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday.

“I will meet with the cemetery people tomorrow to discuss the possibility of sliding the road over a bit and putting some field tile in the ditches in order to help with this issue. I don’t really like the idea of putting field tile in, but it will be the most cost- effective way to resolve this issue. We will fill the ditch in and put in some intakes and hope this will take care of the issue,” Hotchkiss said.

Hotchkiss hopes to begin this maintenance project in a couple of weeks as long as other projects keep going as planned. “We are protecting the cemetery property from losing its back slope,” Hotchkiss said.

The cemetery isn’t the only issue at that location though. “It’s kind of a nasty intersection and it’s uncontrolled. There are no stop signs out there, but there is no accident history. But with this in mind, we are still looking at changing the road to make it safer. We hope to make it so people will have a better angle to look south, which makes this road safer,” Hotchkiss informed the board.

“There will be an elevation change, but I think it solves the drainage issue around the cemetery and it improves safety and gives the public a better chance of seeing what is coming and with the truck traffic to the Doud’s Quarry, it is necessary,” Hotchkiss said. “I will be looking into stop signs and be doing an investigation to see if the intersection warrants one or not. If it does, I will bring a resolution before the board.”

Hotchkiss also discussed other miscellaneous work that took place last week. “We did some mowing and blading of dirt roads. We also had trucks hauling rock and we hope to get the rock placed and tied down before winter,” he said.

The engineer also updated the board on the Iowa Avenue project. “It should have its final coating completed today (Tuesday) and we should be finished with the asphalt job. On Monday, Iowa Avenue will be closed (weather pending), but Grand Avenue is opening back up for traffic this Friday. If everything goes according to plan and weather cooperates with us, we should be done in two weeks. Also, the Highway 218 lane closure should be done soon as well, so traffic control will improve drastically,” he said.

Once Hotchkiss finished his reports, Henry County Sheriff, Rich McNamee asked the board to approve hiring two reserve deputies. “Bradley Gillis and Zachary Archer have met the requirements in order to be hired and I would like you to approve them,” McNamee said to the board. The board approved the hiring of the two deputies.

“With these two, we will have six. We have room for 15, but I’m not saying we have to get that many. I would like at least 10,” McNamee said.